A Christmas Carol

Few would dispute the fact that Alastair Sim is the finest screen Scrooge, but Lionel Barrymore would have given him a hard act to follow. Sadly, disability forced him to withdraw from this typically polished MGM version of Charles Dickens's yuletide favourite. Reginald Owen is a good substitute, however, impressing particularly during the visitations of Marley and the other Christmas ghosts. Gene Lockhart is perhaps a mite too jolly for Bob Cratchit, but Terry Kilburn plays Tiny Tim without the traditional lashings of pathos. The hauntings might send the very young scurrying behind the settee.